Too much wind in Saint Tropez for the Centenarians

Too much wind in Saint Tropez for the Centenarians

The weather conditions, a stiff easterly of around 25 knots and choppy sea, forced the race officials to abandon racing of the 3^rd Centenary Trophy, the event organized by the Gstaad Yacht Club together with the Société Nautique de Saint Tropez, gathering centenarian classic yachts, scheduled for Thursday.

The organizers decided that the wind, but especially the sea state, would have have been too rough for such beautiful and delicate old yachts and that good seamanship dictated a stop. The exclusive trophy, created by Wakely and Wheeler of London in 1911, then remains in the hands of Richard Allan, owner of the Nicholson designed gaff cutter Marigold, who won the event last year.

If the crews could not fight on the water, they had a second chance on a much smaller, and calmer race course. A “Plan B” was put in place, and a match racing event with radio controlled model yachts was organized at the Chateau Saint Tropez swimming pool. The boats, full carbon AC models, were especially delivered from Gstaad -where they are used once a year for the club’s traditional ski-yachting event. The eight competing teams, Bona Fide, Kelpie, Marigold, Nan of Fife, Partridge, Phoebus and Sif, selected a skipper and a tactician among their crews who could best fight for the win. After a qualification round and the semi-finals, in a much contested final it was the young team from Bona Fide I to secure victory on fellow crew-mates of Bona Fide II.

The Centenary Trophy is organized by The Gstaad Yacht Club in co-operation with the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez

Editors’ notes:

The Gstaad Yacht Club was founded in 1998 by a group of sailor enthusiasts with the vision to “create a unique global yacht club away from the waters, instead of another local club by the waters”. Since December 20th, 2003, GYC has its own clubhouse with 400 members from over 20 different countries. The GYC was a bit of a joke in the beginning as a club in the mountains without water. With sailing projects on all levels from juniors to professional sailors, it has become a solid force on the Swiss sailing scene.